This afternoon, Wednesday, June 3, from 3 to 6, area residents are invited to join fellow bike lovers, local history enthusiasts, and civic officials at the Rockbridge Historical Society Museum for an open house featuring the legacies of the “1976 Virginia Bikecentennial.”
Along with a special commemorative exhibit, the gathering is timed to welcome a group of nearly 40 cyclists who are currently wheeling their way across the state to “recreationally re-create” that historic event: a spirited 50th anniversary encore that adds to this year’s broader VA250 celebrations. Their visit also pays tribute to the installation of new bike lanes in downtown Lexington last fall to provide more accessibility and safety to everyday riders in our region.
Their group exercise is complemented by a recently launched digital project and 30-episode podcast series designed by one of those riders, Bike76VA Project Director and Dean at Virginia Tech, Tom Ewing. Developed in partnership with RHS and other historical societies and museums across the state, those digital deep-dives (freely available at Bike76-va.vt.domains. edu) supplement the dozen illustrated poster-sized displays that will be shown through the summer at the RHS Museum, before traveling to local schools and libraries.
RHS Executive Director and Rockbridge250 Co-Chair Eric Wilson emphasized: “These imaginative, interpretive, and athletic journeys jointly traverse Virginia’s broad geographical range and resources. They’ve been mindfully and inclusively curated to represent the commonwealth’s evolving cultural traditions, spanning five-and-more centuries of indigenous, colonial, revolutionary, and more contemporary histories. Among the Rockbridge narratives we’ve contributed to the project, you can both listen to and graphically explore selections detailing Natural Bridge and Monacan heritage; Appalachian traditions evidenced at Irish Creek; segregated regional travel and ‘The Green Book;’ and the creation and preservation of the Blue Ridge Parkway.”
In 1976, two couples pioneered a bike-friendly route connecting hundreds of small American communities from coast to coast, while also birthing Adventure Cycling, America’s flagship bike-touring company. Marked locally by the run of black and white road signs for VA-76, which are blazoned with bicycle logos, that 4,250-mile “Bikecentennial Trail” can still be fully traveled today.
Its historically anchored path runs from a Revolutionary trailhead at Yorktown, over the Blue Ridge and down to Gertie’s Country Store in Vesuvius, a nationally known landmark for riders who continue to colorfully write their names on its walls.
Beyond the 52 miles in Rockbridge that run along South River and the Maury, passing through Main Street Lexington and Plank Road, cyclists continue pedaling through the Shenandoah Valley and Appalachian range to Christiansburg and Breaks Interstate Park. Heading west across 10 states, US-76 crosses 14 states and the Mississippi, passes through Yellowstone, climbs the Rockies, and descends the Columbia River Valley, before landing on the Pacific Coast, at the same confluence where Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery famously cried “Ocian in View!” to herald the achievements of their own transcontinental trek.
Beyond the chance to visit with riders at this afternoon’s open house, the RHS Museum is open weekends, Fridays-Sundays, 1-4 p.m. For more on the exhibit, and other summertime events looking back to 1976 and 1776, see RHS’ Facebook and Instagram pages, or write [email protected].
